The Writer’s Festival has been taking place, in Ottawa, since 1997; twice per year since 2004. It has welcomed writers, from Canada and abroad, who write about a range of topics and in a range of formats: science, history, poetry, politics, drama, fiction, non- fiction, biography, music, spirituality, TV and film scripts….in short, it’s a dream for the lover of the written (and spoken) word.

And the Festival doesn’t present just anybody. During it’s time, it has “featured more than 50 Governor General Award winners, two dozen Trillium Award winners, eight Giller Prize winners, seven Pulitzer Prize winners, five Booker Prize winners and Nobel Laureates Naguib Mahfouz and José Saramago, along with bestsellers and wonderful emerging voices.”

But don’t think that what we’re dealing with here are snooty intellectuals. The Festival has worked with writers and other organizations to support the development of literacy within the community; specifically within schools, with the homeless, First Nations, new Canadians and parolees.

The Writer’s Festival runs from April 26 to April 30 at various locations around the city.

P.S. It seems that Nick Cave was at the Festival in 2009. I wasn’t, but someone, who took this cool video of Nick reading, was.